Skip Navigation



BJSW Advance Access published online on May 29, 2009
British Journal of Social Work, doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcp062
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Webb, D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved

A Certain Moment: Some Personal Reflections on Aspects of Residential Childcare in the 1950s

David Webb

David Webb is Emeritus Professor of Social Science at Nottingham Trent University

Correspondence to David Webb, The Old Vicarage, 12 Frog Lane, Plungar, Nottingham NG13 0JE, UK. E-mail: david.webb{at}ntu.ac.uk


  Abstract

The paper's point of departure is the residential care of children—and especially girls and young women—during the 1950s. The approach of what was then known as The Church of England Children's Society is reviewed in light of its origins in Victorian philanthropy, and this is linked to the author's memories of the life of a person responsible for running one of the Society's homes. Her working life stretched from when the Society's founder was still an influential force to the late 1950s by which time the foundations for the ‘modern’ approach to looked-after children had been laid. The moral certainties that underpinned the approach at the home are considered, including the merits of such clarity, despite these appearing to contemporary eyes so limiting. This ‘backwardness’ is set alongside the concerns that are voiced today about the widely seen failings of modern residential care, particularly for girls and young women. Drawing on the work of Gramsci, the paradoxical inversion of the ‘reactionary’ past and the ‘progressive’ present are considered in terms of a contrast between an earlier clarity borne of faith and conviction and a contemporary hesitancy towards the enforcement of norms and values that are unendingly contested.

Keywords: The Children's Society, History of social work, Residential child care, Young women in care


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.